SERC Submits Petition to the ILO for Protection of Migrant Workers Rights in Thailand

On June 13, 2011 Sawit Keawwan, General Secretary of the State Enterprise Workers Relations Confederation (SERC) submitted a petition to the representative of the ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR), against the failure of Government of Thailand to observe the Equality of Treatment (Accident Compensation) Convention 1925 (C-19). Thailand ratified this Convention in 1968

According to SERC, the Thai Government, “does not grant workers’ compensation benefits to migrants from Myanmar under several rationales, all of which amount to a denial of such benefits to migrants from Myanmar as a class. Put differently, Thai administration does not permit the award of workers’ compensation benefits to approximately 2.5 million migrants from Myanmar working in Thailand by means of discriminatory practices that result in systematic abuse and exploitation at the hands of state officials and employers and that plainly contravene the equality of treatment norm erected in C-19.”

In addition to the petition, Mr. Keawwan submitted over 500 pages of supporting documents to explain how systematic discrimination against migrants from Myanmar prevails in Thailand.

SERC is a confederation of 43 state enterprise unions in Thailand representing over 170, 000 members and affiliated to the International Trade Union Confederation.